General Information / Nominating Organizations: Please use this Column to Provide the Requested Information
1 / Organization & Web address / Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders.org
and
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
nrdc.org
2 / Contact name / Aaron Hall (Defenders) Matt Skoglund (NRDC)
3 / Address / Defenders of Wildlife
1120 17th St
Washington DC, 20036
NRDC
40 West 20th St
New York, NY 10011
4 / Email & phone / Aaron Hall
720-943-4581
Matt Skoglund
406-556-9301
5 / Communications staff contact name (if different from above) / Defenders of Wildlife
Leigh Anne Tiffany
202-772-0259
NRDC
TBD
6 / Email & phone / See above
Species Information
7 / Common name, genus, and species / Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchusalbus)
8 / Geographic range / Northern MT to New Orleans (Missouri, Mississippi Rivers and major tributaries)
9 / Conservation status / Endangered (listed in 1990)
10 / Remaining population size / Upstream of Lake Sakakawea, adult population of approximately 100 wild-born individuals supplemented by hatchery fish (1000s); Species has not produced young in the wild in approximately 60 years
Report Questions
11 / Can you provide high-resolution photos? / yes
12 / If your species is selected, will you use the report to advocate for the species? / yes
13 / 5 free reports provided; additional copies = ~$2.60/each. If you’d like additional copies, how many (bulk orders may be cheaper)? / 0
Public Engagement Questions (Please explain why the species is interesting, why it matters, why decision-makers + the public should care.)
14 / Provide background information, including interesting facts, for the species profile. / The appropriately nicknamed “living dinosaur” has silver bony plates instead of scales, can live longer than 50 years, can reach 6 feet long, and can weigh in at about 80 pounds. The pallid sturgeon is native to the murky Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and their tributaries’ basins, where its long, flat, toothless snout is the perfect shape to gobble up smaller fish and other prey it finds on the river floor. They thrive along the bottoms of large sediment-laden rivers, where the natural warm flows create a variety of water depths, braided channels and sand flats and gravel bars.
As humans built dams for flood control, irrigation, navigation, and other uses on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers during the early and mid-1900s, these dams disrupted the river’s natural sediment, flow, and temperature – and the connectivity of the rivers – destroying much of the pallid sturgeon’s habitat and blocking the fish from swimming up and downstream. It turns out that pallid sturgeon larvae (newly hatched sturgeon that are not yet able to swim on their own) also need hundreds of miles of free-flowing, oxygen-rich waters to survive. When dams break up these long reaches of river, the young larvae drift into the depths of the backwater of reservoirs, where they sink to the bottom and perish from lack of oxygen.
15 / What is your organization’smost important lead message for the public about this species’ decline to be included in the report? / The wild population of pallid sturgeon, a critically endangered North American fish with ancestors dating back to the time of dinosaurs, may die out in the upper Missouri River basin within a few years if river dam operations in this basin – both existing and proposed – are not changed and the sturgeon is not provided access to prime spawning habitat.
The best habitat in North America for the pallid sturgeon is in Montana and western North Dakota in the upper Missouri and lower Yellowstone Rivers. For the last 60 years, this population of has been unable to produce offspring in the wild because dams have cut off access to important habitat or destroyed their spawning and nursery habitat.
Although the impacts of these dams have been well documented for more than 20 years, the responsible federal agencies have avoided their obligations under the ESA to change their operations. Instead of complying with their ESA obligations, the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation are now proposing to replace the existing rock Intake Diversion Dam on the Yellowstone River with a permanent concrete dam, and add an artificial, human-made side channel for fish passage that scientists say has no reasonable expectation of success, creating an even more permanent barrier to pallid sturgeon passage.
16 / Is your NGO saving the species? If yes, how? / Yes. Defenders of Wildlife and Natural Resources Defense Council are involved in legal action against U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for their failure to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Clean Water Act (CWA), due to their failure to modify the operations of the two dams that are causing the localized extinction of endangered pallid sturgeon in the upper Missouri River Basin and their adoption of a plan to build a new dam on the Yellowstone.
We have won two preliminary injunctions to pause construction of the proposed concrete dam and bypass channel. Most recently, in July 2017, a federal court concluded the dam and bypass channel likely fails to comply with the ESA, NEPA, and CWA.
17 / How can individuals help? Please be specific. / Individuals can write their elected officials and newspapers to express support for the pallid sturgeon, demand that the Bureau of Reclamation and Corps need to provide full river passage for the pallid sturgeon on the Yellowstone River, and demand that the Intake Dam needs to be removed.
18 / What action should the new administration take to save the species? How can they accomplish this action? / The Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation need to go back to the drawing board and choose an alternative that provides full river passage for the pallid sturgeon so that they can spawn far enough upstream in the Yellowstone River for their offspring to survive. They also need to comply with previous requirements from the FWS with regards to operations at Ft. Peck Dam, which would improve their status within the Missouri River above Lake Sakakawea.
Criteria-specific Questions Part 1 – Please answer N/A or “see above/below” if appropriate.
19 / Detail the ecological importance of the species. Does it play a critical function in its ecosystem? How does the ecosystem depend on this species (e.g., keystone predator, keystone pollinator, ecological engineer, refugia provider, etc.)? / It is a top predator in the large-river systems of the Missouri and Mississippi.
20 / Detail information on any social or economic benefits the species provides—e.g., clean water, recreation, medicine, etc. (Optional) / At the turn of the last century pallid sturgeon, along with other Mississippi River sturgeon, were important sources of both meat and caviar. The pallid is also a relic of the age of dinosaurs, its ancestors having survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.
21 / Can the species be an ambassador for its habitat or taxonomic group? If yes, detail. / The pallid’s ancestors survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, but the species seems to be no match for our untampered development and manipulation of America’s great rivers. Other native freshwater fishes (more than 30 species in this region) and endangered species (e.g., least tern and piping plover) are threatened by the same forces that limit the flows of the Missouri and its tributaries, and would be helped by addressing the issues that have led to decline and imminent localized extinction of wild pallid sturgeon.
Judge’s Score for Importance of Species:
22 / Describe the specific threat(s) to the species. What are the greatest impacts? / The primary threat is operation of a series of dams managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and blocked fish passage on the Yellowstone River due to an irrigation diversion dam built and managed by the Bureau of Reclamation.
23 / If not described above, detail the current and projected decline of the species. / The species has not successfully reproduced in the wild in approximately 60 years, even though some spawning has been documented. There are an estimated 100 wild individuals left in the Yellowstone, with an estimated 5% mortality rate every year due to old age. While there are hatchery fish in the wild, they have not yet reached sexual maturity, it is not known if they will behave like wild fish, and even if they do their larvae still will not have enough drift distance to mature before dying in the oxygen-depleted waters of Lake Sakakawea.
24 / If not described above, detail the status of the species’ habitat(s). What are the threats, if any? Is there adequate connectivity? / Described above.
25 / Describe the timing of the species’ threat(s). Is it a current, eminent, or future threat? / Yes, all
Judge’s Score for Severity and Extent of Threat:
KEY QUESTIONS FOR NOMINATION: Criteria-specific Questions Part 2 – Please answer N/A or “see above/below” if appropriate.
26 / What does the science on this species indicate was the correct ESA decision? / The science indicates that the limiting factor for sturgeon recovery is an inability to recruit young into the population. This is a direct result of limited drift distance (determined by river miles, water temperatures, and flow rates) available to sturgeon larvae after spawning.
27 / How was the science not followed? What was the ultimate decision that was made (or not made)? / Two examples:
- Operations at Ft Peck Reservoir
Neither of these RPAs have been implemented by the Corps of Engineers at Ft Peck. Instead, since 2007 the Corps focused on the Bureau of Reclamation’s Intake Diversion Dam on the Yellowstone River. Not only does this “swap” mean that, at best, one dam will be modified instead of two, the Corps and Reclamation have ignored the science at Intake Dam as well.
- Intake Diversion Dam
28 / Why was the science not followed? Indicate if there is an associated political threat from industry groups, members of Congress, and/or states. / At Ft. Peck, the Corps claims that both RPAs are unfeasible. They have done a minimal amount of research to support this statement.
At Intake, the bypass channel alternative was selected because it was the least expensive alternative, even though the science does not support that Pallid Sturgeon will actually use the bypass channel. Furthermore, the way that costs for the different alternatives were calculated is questionable, likely inflating the costs of the open river alternative and downplaying the costs of the bypass channel alternative. An open river alternative would involve removing the existing dam and installing pumps to divert the local irrigation district’s full water right.
The main political/industry group that opposes the open river alternative at Intake is the farmers who use the diverted water. They are not responsible for the initial costs of construction for any selected alternative, but would be responsible for ongoing operations and maintenance of whatever alternative is implemented. According to the cost calculations in the EIS, operations and maintenance of an open river alternative (which uses pumps to provide irrigation water) is higher than a human-made bypass channel with a new concrete dam. They claim that these increased costs (as calculated in the EIS) will ruin their livelihoods and the local economy.
29 / What is the impact of the political meddling in the decision on the species? What has occurred as a result of not following scientific recommendations on the management of the species? / See above. The wild population of pallid sturgeon is facing imminent extirpation.
In addition, the Corps and Reclamation have failed to implement the one scientifically sound alternative for Pallid Sturgeon at Intake—the removal of the existing dam and installation of pumps for the irrigation district.
Judge’s Score for Severity of Political Interference:
Judge’s Final Score
Please submit to by September 12, 2017, and thank you for p